PRO BASKETBALL

PRO BASKETBALL; Nets Plot Draft Pick With Eye On Future

By LIZ ROBBINS

Published: June 26, 2002

The Nets no longer have the urgency to rebuild or restock their roster, so they can afford to be choosy with the No. 24 pick in tonight's N.B.A. draft. That choice, however, will most likely come down to the frantic five minutes allotted each team.

Swept up in the murky 11th hour, Rod Thorn, the Nets' president, spoke more in percentages than specifics yesterday. He still believes there is a ''50-50'' chance the Nets will keep their pick, depending on the maneuvers of teams above them.

''We've got a list of 7 to 10 guys that we have a major interest in,'' Thorn said during a conference call. ''We're very hopeful that at least one of those players will get to us.

''But that's not guaranteed. If a player does not get to us that we're interested in, then we may very well trade the pick because what I don't want to do, if possible, is take the player we feel is not a reasonably sure thing to make our team.''

Thorn said that it was unlikely that if the Nets were to make a trade, they would do so involving a current player on the roster, but they could receive a player in exchange. ''I'd say I'm 85 to 95 percent sure it would be picks for picks or pick for pick,'' Thorn said. ''There's a 15 percent chance it would be a player for a pick.''

Last night, the Nets were discussing their draft wish list where guards and forwards were split evenly, Thorn said. He expected that the Nets' decision to choose a player or trade will go down to the final ticks of the clock.

''I think it will, right now, I don't know what I'm going to do,'' Thorn said.

The Nets finished their season on June 12, so they only could arrange three days of workouts with 18 players. But Thorn said players on the list were not necessarily ones the Nets had worked out.

Two Eastern Conference officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that they believed the names on the Nets' draft board could include shooting guard Casey Jacobsen of Stanford, point guards Frank Williams of Illinois and Fred Jones of Oregon, as well as the foreign guards Jiri Welsch of the Czech Republic and Mladen Sekularac of Yugoslavia.

The Nets worked out Maryland guard Juan Dixon yesterday and Thorn praised him firmly as a ''good shooter'' with experience. Also invited to the workouts were Ryan Humphrey of Notre Dame, Virginia's Roger Mason Jr., Rasual Butler of La Salle and the Brooklyn native Lenny Cooke of Central Flint High School in Michigan.

But it is likely none of these players would ever play for the Nets. ''There have been six different teams that have contacted us, all trying to move up,'' Thorn acknowledged.

He added that there is ''very little chance'' the Nets would move up in the draft themselves.

The Nets are not the only team wary of spending money on a first-round pick that might not play. First-round picks must be given a minimum of a three-year guarantee, at a salary of $850,000 next season.

Brandon Armstrong was the No. 23 pick last season, and the shooting guard played sparingly and was left off the playoff roster.

The Nets already have 12 guaranteed contracts on the roster -- including the rookie Brian Scalabrine, a second-round pick from last season whose option the Nets recently picked up for next year.

Thorn, though, said he will petition the league to have Jamie Feick's contract removed from the salary cap since he does not expect him to play again. Feick had Achilles' surgery before the season and the rehabilitation has not been going well, according to Thorn.

With the Nets' salaries reaching close to $53 million, already hitting the projected luxury tax range, paying for a ''marginal'' player would be a concern.

The Nets still could draft a foreign player and let him mature in Europe for a year or two and not have to pay for his salary until he came to the team to play. Or the Nets could trade their first-round pick for a first-round pick next year.

Thorn did acknowledge yesterday that teams have called recently to inquire about trades involving a player or players in the starting rotation, and while he would not specify, several league officials have suggested that Keith Van Horn is once again on the trading blocks.

''It is very unlikely that anything will happen before the draft or during the draft along any of those lines,'' Thorn said.